Reenforced edge for hat brims



Jan. 14, 1936. J. cAvANAGH I REENFORCED EDGE FOR HAT BRIMS Filed Feb, 25, 1935 l fave/2501,. Jia/kfz @ava/Wh Patented Jan. 14, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,027,858 REENFORCEDKEDGE FOR HAT BRIMS Application February 23, 1935, Serial No. 7,698

4 Claims.

My present invention relates to hats and more particularly to felt and wool hats and to the formation of a welt or thickened edge portion.

It is very desirable in the manufacture of many styles of hats to form a thickened or Welt edge upon the brim, which obviously serves to produce adesirable finish and serves as a substitute for binding and the like, thereby eliminating stitching and producing a finished edge in the same color and of the same material as the brim is formed. A welt edge of this character obviously greatly improves the Wearing qualities of the hat and insures the brim holding its shape better.

Numerous means have been devised for the formation of welts around the edge of the brim portion of hats, particularly soft hats, and many of them have proven satisfactory, especially in the manufacture of heavy hats, that is hats formed with a relatively thick body portion though in these instances where the welt is produced by increased thicknesses of felt, extra work in sizing is frequently required in order to thoroughly Work tobether the several plies of material to form an integral felted edge.

At the present time, light weight hats are very much in demand and I find that it has been difcult to produce this style of a hat With a perfect welted edge in the old way of using added strips of felt, and therefore have devised the 4present invention which not only includes a different kind of material with which to reinforce the edge, but also the formation of a hat body having a lower edge portion that is relatively thinner than the main portion of the body and is folded back and over to enclose the filling inra way to form a relatively thin finished welt.

My invention consists accordingly in the features of construction, arrangement of elements, combination of parts in the several steps and relation and order of each of the same, comprising an improved method, all as will be described herein, in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specication, and wherein Fig. 1 shows a side elevation of a hat body, as taken from the cone, and after having received several rounds in the sizing operation, and showing the thinned lower annular edge portion of the body;

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged vertical sectional view through one edge portion of the body, illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a length o1' fur yarn such as I employ in the formation of the welted edge;

Fig. 4 shows a further detail sectional view of the yarn laying upon the thin edge of the body;

Fig. 5 shows a further detail sectional view wherein the thin edge portion of the body is turned over upon the yarn and its edge stitched down;

Fig. 6 shows a further detail sectional view 10 of an edge portion of the body after being further sized and the stitches removed;

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view of the flnished brim and crown, illustrating an integral welted edge; and 15 Fig. 8 shows a perspective View of a light Weight soft hat having its brim edge formed in accordance with my invention.

Referring in detail to the characters of reference marked upon the drawing, I0 represents a hat body such as is formed of fur in the customary manner, by blowing given quantities of fur on a perforated metal cone forming a part of a hat forming machine. The body as herein shown has been shrunk partly in the preliminary sizing operations. This hat body as shown includes a thinner lower edge portion Il which is produced with the formation of the body and in practice is approximately one-half the thickness of the main body portion and thus constitutes an edge portion of reduced thickness which is folded over a s'uitable filling l2 in the form of a yarn, with the edge stitched down as indicated at I3 in Fig. 5. This yarn is formed for the most part of fur but may include a small percentage of Wool, animal or vegetable bers such as would readily felt into the enclosing edge portion of the hat body. The fibers of this yarn for the most part are disposed longitudinally of the edge of the brim as suggested in Figs. 3 and 4 thus forming a stronger brim, that is more resistant to annular and lateral strains.

In the method of producing this reinforced edge or welt and after the reduced edge portion has been rolled enclosing the yarn and stitched down, it is put through further sizing opera tions to work the fibers of the yarn and hat body together, see Fig. 5, after which the stitches are removed, and further sizing and shrinking operations of the body, including the edge portion, are proceeded with. These parts are thus obviously worked together, see Figs. 6 and 7, to form an integral mass and a welt I4 of any desired dimensions according to the thickness of the edge portion of the body and the size or quantity of the furyarn used as a filling.

I am aware that welt'edges have been formed by multiple layers of felt taken from or forming a part of the hat body, which is still practiced to some extent in the manufacture of heavy-bodied hats. I am also aware that in the formation of other hats, the edge portions of the brim have been skived off, preparatory to being folded over upon the edge to form a finished edge, and accordingly make no claim to and disclaim from the scope of the pending claims, reinforced edges formed in these manners. I believe it is novel to produce an edge around the lower portion of a hat body of uniform though a materially reduced thickness, andlikewise regarded as novel to include unworked fur yarn in the edge portion of a hat brim and size it and the hat body to form an integral reenforced edge portion.

Having thusfdescribed my invention, What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A felt hat including a brim having a reenforced' edge formed of multiple layers of felt relatively thinner than the brim and a filling of l fibrous yarn, all felted together to form an integral Welt edge.

2. A felt hat including a brim having a reenforced edge formed of multiple layers of felt relatively thinner than the brim and a filling of fur yarn, all felted together to form an integral welt edge. 5

3. The method of welting the edge of the brim of a felt hat which consists first in forming a hat body, then applying an unfelted iibrous yarn to its edge portion, folding said portion over the yarn and stitching said portion to the main body, then sizing the body including the reenforced edge portion in a manner to felt the yarn into the hat body, removing the stitches and further sizing and finishing the body.

4. The method of Welting the edge of the brim of a felt hat which consists first in forming a hat body with a relatively thin edge portion, then applying a brous yarn to the said thinned edge portion, folding the portion over the yarn and stitching said edge portion to the main body, then sizing the body including the reenforced edge portion, next removing the stitches and nally further sizing the body to more thoroughly and completely felt the yarn into the hat body to form a thickened edge.

JOHN CAVANAGH. 

